44 Scotland Street Reviews

• McCall Smith is a marvel!

  
  By A3JSDV57XPD937 on 2006-03-11
  I believe I've become addicted to Alexander McCall Smith's writing! Everything I read by him, I thoroughly enjoy. This book is very different than The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, and the Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld series. Each has its own character, style and humor. This book is based on a daily newspaper serial, McCall Smith was asked to do after he brought up the subject in an article he wrote in the newspaper, The Herald, in Scotland. As usual, McCall Smith was up to the task and, I believe, is working on another serialized story that will eventually be put into book form.
  
  This book is about the motley crew who inhabit an apartment building on the edge of the Bohemian part of Edinburgh's New Town, 44 Scotland Street. There's Pat, the newest tenant, and from whose point of view the story is told;. Bruce Anderson, the gadabout narcissist who is sure every woman in the world adores him; the Pollack family, little Bertie, age 5, his pushy mother, Irene, and his long-suffering father, Stuart. Then we have wise and free-spirited Domenica Macdonald, a woman in her sixties, and another man, Mr. Syme, who stays to himself and is rarely seen by the others.
  
  Among the storylines are Pat's struggle with her growing attraction to flat mate Bruce, Bertie's acting out resulting from his growing resentment of his mother's efforts to make him grow up way before it's time; and Domenica and Pat's growing friendship. To support herself, Pat takes a job at an art gallery run by a mild-mannered, seemingly ineffectual, rich kid named Matthew, and a series of events unfold involving a painting. My favorite character turned out to be Bertie as he begins to rebel against the pressures brought to bear on him by his parents. The characters are a mix of personalities as one would expect, and the events portrayed are an equal mix of serious, kooky, and downright hilarious! I hope there will be more books about these characters.
  
  Carolyn Rowe Hill
  
  
  

• An Insider Novel-Too Narrow in Scope to be Satisfying

  
  By AQDJTEIDUKK5B on 2005-08-09
  This novel was first published as daily installments in an Edinburgh newspaper. In turn, the novel is divided into a 100+ very short chapters. Alexander McCall Smith's intended audience was the Edinburgh newspaper readers who had to follow the novel on a daily basis. Consequently, the novel is filled with insider references that Edinburgh readers would appreciate. Afterall, it is always a little bit thrilling to see one's home town mentioned in a story. All these inside references to neighborhoods and local politics are less interesting to a reader living in another country.
  
  I am a loyal fan of Alexander McCall Smith. His Number One Ladies Detective Agency novels are subperb and the Professor Von Igelfeld stories are some of the funniest stories that I have ever read. Unfortunately, McCall Smith does not deliver in this novel. The story line is jagged and many interesting threads are never persued. There are some very humorous moments but all in all the novel is strangely disjointed.
  
  Writing novels in daily or weekly chapters must be one of the most daunting tasks that any novelist can undertake. Unfortunately, only the greatest writers can do this well. Dumas and Dickens come to mind. They were successful because they took on ambitious story lines with very wide scopes of detail and character. McCall Smith fails in this novel because his scope is too narrow and pedestrian. These small intimate Edinburgh stories are not made for daily newspaper deadlines. Unfortunately, he could not realize this novel within the constraints of one newspaper column a day. This would have been a much better novel, if he would have sat down and wrote it like a conventional novel. It was an interesting experiment but he should stick to the format that best works for him.
  
  

• A gentle and humorous look at life from many angles

  
  By A1LT7LA7GELTBY on 2007-02-20
  Alexander McCall Smith has the rare talent of being able to see people as they see themselves. This ensemble book introduces us to many different characters, from a young woman searching for meaning in a life that seems out of control to an accidental philosopher to the hapless head of the Edinburgh Conservative party. Some are deep and interesting characters, others are simple and shallow. But whoever they are, when Smith describes their thoughts and actions even the characters who in the hands of another author would be contemptible are shown to be victims of their own foibles and outlook. That doesn't mean that there are no bad guys; Anyone who has known a lunkhead jock or over-ambitious mother will immediately recognize Bruce and Irene. But no one is a villain in their own mind, and the beauty of these books is that you can almost identify with everyone in them. Almost. Not quite though.
  
  "44 Scotland Street" was actually written as a newspaper serial, something that I haven't personally run into before. It was published in "The Scotsman" in Edinburgh in daily increments, and in the preface Smith points out that one consequence was that once a chapter was written, it could never be revised - it had been published and read already! He also points out that by publishing daily each chapter had to have a point of action, and to give the impression that more events were in the offing. Perhaps it's just my personal preference, but the pace that this forced was very enjoyable. It's not a novel with a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter, but it is a book where something happens every chapter.
  
  Smith seems to have enjoyed the experience enough to continue the stories in a second serial, which has now been collected together into "Espresso Tales". I for one definitely plan to buy it.
  
  
  

• A Huge Disappointment!

  
  By ANQV0PLHE3M37 on 2005-07-13
  I thoroughly enjoyed Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith and couldn't wait to read his latest effort, 44, Scotland Street.
  
  However, I did not enjoy Scotland Street at all! It meandered along and raised issues that seemed irrelevant or were never resolved.
  
  I found the characters uninteresting, the story never seemed to develop any sense of direction and towards the end I tired of all the self indulgent waffle and found myself speed reading and skipping huge chunks of text in a mad dash to reach the last page.
  
  I know he has a loyal readership so he must appeal to someone, but no more Alexander McCall Smith for me, thank you!
  
  

• First Dickens, now McCall Smith

  
  By A26W10N6HVB0ZY on 2005-06-17
  First Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century - and now Alexander McCall Smith for the twenty first: serialization of novels is not new, and McCall Smith is a more than worthy literary descendant of the great Dickens himself. This novel, while set in Edinburgh, for Scotsman readers, and full of in jokes, is one that can be enjoyed worldwide. Little Bertie already has fans writing to McCall Smith from all over the world asking for him to be liberated from his ghastly mother. All life is here in this novel - you don't have to be Scottish to appreciate its wonderful humour, since we all know people like the wimpish boyfriend, the slightly batty older lady, the snobbish politicians, the pushy over-ambitious mother, and the bright young woman trying to work out what on earth it is she wants to do in life. In other words, while the characters are set in Edinburgh, they could just as well be in New York, Los Angeles, St Louis, or Richmond (Virginia). A more entertaining book you could not find - perfect reading for the summer by the beach, hiking in the Ozarks, or whatever plans for vacations near and far you may have (it will be a great Christmas present, for that matter). Read it, love it, and then buy ten copies for all your family and friends to share it with them. Charles Dickens - you have a rival! Christopher Catherwood (author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY, Carroll and Graf, 2004)
  
  
• '44 Scotland Street' an extremely fun and entertaining place to go!
  By A3B3AQI0F446GH on 2006-01-15
  I thoroughly enjoyed '44 Scotland Street' and couldn't put it down. Call it a guilty pleasure, or call it an absorbing glimpse into the lives of a variety of characters. It was like being a fly on the wall, watching Bruce preen in front of the bathroom mirror; I loved to loathe this guy, and how delicious to see him squirm through various situations. Yet even he was well-rounded enough to have some good in him, as you see him being kind to the boss's ugly duckling daughter. Many of these characters, Pat, Angus, Domenica and Matthew, felt like friends to me, probably because each segment was told from the point of view of it's character. Each chapter ended with a small cliffhanger that made you eager to continue to the next segment. If I had been reading this in the newspaper, as originally published, this would have tortured me! I really needed to read on for resolution. Finally, I really enjoyed seeing the little boy prodigy rebel against his horribly pushy mother and try to insist on living a normal life. Hooray for Bertie! And hooray for Alexander McCall Smith! I would rate this book right up there with the Mma Ramotswe books, and am hoping for a sequel soon.
  
  
• A paean full of wry social commentary and endearing characters
  By A2F6N60Z96CAJI on 2005-06-24
  44 SCOTLAND STREET first appeared in serialization ala Charles Dickens in 110 daily installments in The Scotsman newspaper. Not a book in the ordinary sense of the word, it also is not a mystery, which is what we have become accustomed to expect from Alexander McCall Smith, creator of Mma Ramotswe in THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY series. There is a wee puzzler involving a painting in the art gallery where our heroine, Pat, works. Is it or is it not an undiscovered painting by eighteenth century painter Samuel Peploe? And if it is, how should one go about retrieving it from a charity boutique where it mistakenly found its way through somewhat complicated means? This minor plot leads us to the cast of characters with whom Pat lives, works and socializes as she flies from the family nest to move into the titled address.
  
  On the landing at 44 Scotland Street lives the widowed and widely traveled Domenica, who befriends Pat and fills her in on the rest of the residents: the stunningly handsome but callow Bruce, Pat's flat mate, who is convinced he is the world's most charming and desirable male, and the strange family largely run by the precocious five-year-old Bertie, whose mother is determined to turn him into a child prodigy.
  
  With three successful mystery series under his belt, McCall Smith seems to draw from a bottomless well of quirky, wise and philosophical characters to delight his fans. He has charmed us with THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY series and its protagonist, Precious Ramotswe; confounded us with his redoubtable Professor Dr. Von Igelfeld in the PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS mysteries; and introduced us to the Scottish-American philosopher Isabel Dalhousie in THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB.
  
  McCall Smith's love of place underlies his tales of mystery and moral dilemmas in each of his stories. A deep and abiding love of Africa and its culture bring to life not only the characters but also the unique problems of an emerging third world country, served in an appetizing dish of humor, wisdom and mystique. His adopted yet nearly native country of Scotland is equally treated to insights and purely Scottish ways in the other two series.
  
  44 SCOTLAND STREET is a paean, with tongue in cheek to Edinburgh society --- high, middle and low. McCall Smith clearly loves the extraordinary city and its slightly stuffy denizens, but you don't need a guidebook or a Scotts burr to enjoy his wry social comments and endearing characters.
  
  --- Reviewed by Roz Shea
  
  
• A Taste Of Scotland
  By A2W1TK5CJXKH5U on 2005-06-30
  In this book, Alexander McCall Smith uses a somewhat different style than that which his reader's are accustomed. This result is because the story was written as a serialized story in "The Scotsman" a daily newspaper.
  
  Each chapter is about the same size, the size of a normal 2 columns in a newspaper, and Smith recognizes, that when writing a serialized story, there is a slight difference in method that must be applied. Since there is only one day's worth of material in each segment, McCall realizes that he must make something happen in terms of plot development in every segment.
  
  He does this with great aplomb. And while Smith indicates that he is illustrating typical Scotland Archetypal personalities, it often seems to the reader, that the personalities are familiar. In fact, the personality types McCall Smith finds in Scotland seem the same as those in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles or Tokyo. Personality types seem to be as universal as good and evil.
  
  Once more, Smith creates a story that will capture the imagination, and keep the reader interested. This book is recommended for all readers of McCall Smith and any person who has ever been to or has an interest in going to Edinburgh, Scotland.
  
  
  
• I Worried If He Could Match Botswana Series -- He Did
  By A3LKWMM12AF0PU on 2006-08-17
  The already pronounced success stars have a great disadvantage - we expect the next act to be as great as the last. Never can a baseball slugger of fame be adequate when we attend the game - unless he hits a shot heard around the world. Never can the ballet dancer have an above average day when we patronage. Never can a beloved writer be just a head taller than the good writers we also occasionally read.
  
  McCall Smith is a proven writer, and beloved. The Botswana series has millions of reading minions, who inhale each novel religiously the week it comes out. I know one of those readers. See him every day in the mirror.
  
  And, then that writer occasionally throws out other stuff - get a fresh try at it. And, sometimes it is good - 44 Scotland Street. And, sometimes, it is not as good - the Isabel Dalhousie series (But on September 16 a new novel comes out and he may rebound, and how we hope he does rebound).
  
  Funny. Insightful. Depictive. And more. This novel handles a 5-year old [Bertie] and his all-too-aggressive mother [Irene] (who would make the most ardent soccer mom of the USA look like a pushover), a widowed and well traveled Scot who married an Indian [Domenica], a young girl experiencing her second year off [Pat] while working for the loser (but nice) rich boy [Matthew] and rooming with the narcissist hunk [Bruce] whose interest in his work as a surveyor under a boring boss and socialite wife is waning.
  
  The meetings of poor little Bertie with his shrink are hilarious. The introspection of Domenica is great. And, Matthew's befuddling self is both endearing and provocative of sympathy and tears for his ever lost self esteem.
  
  Each chapter is 3 pages long - probably as this was written for the newspaper's daily delivery. So, you can read one chapter and commence sleep with a smile. Alternatively, you can read 50 chapters and still have plenty left to read the next night. Either way, it makes for great bed stand reading.
  
  This one is worth turning the pages. Try it, you will like it.
  
  
• A very enjoyable read
  By A3TPSEI5YZO777 on 2007-02-22
  I really liked this book. It was a joy to read. The characters are interesting and unpredictable. Also, it's been a while since I've laughed out loud while reading a book, but I did so with this one.
  
  
• The editor should be fired
  By A1YOL9RY6ULUAW on 2005-12-05
  I was very disappointed with this book. I had read The Number One Ladies Detective Agency and was looking forward to another exceptional read. What a disappointment! Many of the characters are dull and some of the promising ones introduced were not developed. Other plotlines were not developed (e.g., Did Todd's daughter find the man she saw on the escalator?).
  
  My main complaint, however, is the poor ending. As mentioned by another customer reviewer, it just ends.
  
  Maybe the author had to meet his deadline, but any editor knows that it's poor writing form to put a sympathetic character in an unpleasant predicament and end the book without resolution, leaving the reader wondering "what happened to --------?"
  
  If the plan is to print a sequel I will certainly skip it. If I hadn't read the The Number One Ladies Detective Agency I would skip all the books by this author.
  
  
• A Rollicking Excursion through Edinburgh
  By AH7CBIWDTHXWA on 2006-04-27
  The first thing to know about this book is that it was written in seral format for a newspaper in Scotland. The second thing to know is that it doesn't make a lot of sense. The third thing is -- if you can get past the first two, this book is downright hilarious. Don't expect a great work of fiction, but do expect some wry observations on the human condition, as well as some unique characters.
  
  I would have liked to see things wrapped up a bit more at the end (What happened to Bertie? And Lizzie? And Big Lou??), but still -- LOVED THIS. Alexander McCall Smith is an intelligent, entertaining, and quirky writer.
  
  
• Hilariously entertaining
  By A3G5WD8LB2XYON on 2006-01-28
  This novel deserves 5 stars.
  I was given 44 Scotland Street as a Christmas gift. I assumed it was a "detective story" given the author's previous well known work. I was very pleasantly surprised to find the book was like nothing else I have ever read. I have lived in Scotland and have visited Jenner's department store in Edninburgh, as well as some of the other landmarks mentioned in the book. I can assure readers who have not been to Edinburgh that the descriptions and the characterizations are very real, for example, the rivalry between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
  Although it may be difficult for non-Scots to fully appreciate certain elements of the book, the characters can be found practically anywhere and in any time. For example, the narcissistic Bruce and the class-conscious Sasha.
  I would highly recommend this book to anyone and especially homesick Scots. I can hardly wait for the sequel.
  
  
• Tales of the Scotland City
  By AYT4FJYVCHYLE on 2007-02-11
  Taking a cue from Armistead Maupin's, "Tales of the City", Alexander McCall Smith has written a charming, witty, and oftentimes very insider portrait of a small group of inhabitants at 44 Scotland Place. Like Maupin, Smith cobbles together a little over a half dozen characters and sets them free to interact. A departure from his excellent Detective Ladies series, it never quite reached the level of those books to me, however it has enough of it's own charm and wit to easily recommend it.
  
  
• wonderful audio book
  By A3GPTS7HSE3K2L on 2007-02-14
  My family (ages 10, 14, 40+) listened to this series with great interest. The intertwined plots and cliff hanger style was great fun in the car and when performing chores. We can't wait for the third book.
  
  
• *EDINBURGH has an indelible place in my Heart . . .*
  By A393SW83L4WH3G on 2008-06-24
  In this series by Alexander McCall Smith, there is not as much philosophy as plain unadulterated (tho' calculated) fun. Because "44" runs as a newspaper serial, it must be served up in daily doses that carry one over to the next day's episode. In its book form readers may gallop ahead to the next hurdle (champing at the bit, to continue in a horsy vein).
  
  You will find your outlook of Edinburgh, the city and soul, broadened: A memorable top floor flat is shared by newcomer Pat and two absentee tenants & the wildly narcissistic Bruce. The occupants of other flats in the building also play important roles, as do a few real live citizens of the city. Pat is a college student "on sabbatical" or "gap year". An interesting part of the package is Pat's psychiatrist father who doles out great advice ~ from another part of town.
  
  Each character seems to be weighted with extremes of personality & that is where the fun lies for me. "What a hoot" my Edinburgh friends would say, although they may not need to turn to McCall Smith's books to provide them with droll characters, ironic turns of phrase, poetic quotations, etc. They doubtless have a good supply of their own "indelible" moments.
  
  "Pulling the legs" of many readers, the author had a good time with a story about investigating a tunnel under 44 Scotland Street. His wonderful multi-dimensional character, Domenica, leads a few friends & comes to a place where the group listens to a dinner discussion just above their heads. Voices of well-known (Edinburghers*) Establishment figures are recognized & sly remarks made for the reader to cogitate upon. (actually, only in Indiana would citizens of an "Edinburg/h" be called that).
  
  The book naturally leaves readers 'hanging' in the fashion of serials. Very happily there are already three more volumes to help satisfy our curiosity & hunger for further escapades involving these strangers who now occupy a secure place in the labyrinths of memory. Lovely, storied Edinburgh, its "angled streets" pull at our heartstrings.
  
  Illustrations by Iain McIntosh as mentioned in the author's Preface, are
  clever, humorous and total perfection: I yearn for a door-knocker of his design; ditto, kitchen faucets!
  
  I will try to add an IMAGE of the Iain McIntosh website above . . . Edinburgh, Friendship, and "tears of rain" . . . memories old & new, for all that I express grateful thanks to Alexander McCall Smith, my favorite 'long-distance runner'.
  
  *commentary-with-a-small-c* by mchaiku
  
  
• Laugh Out Loud
  By A2N32F1JX00KJD on 2005-08-27
  Alexander McCall Smith has done it again. His characters are the people you love to hate and the people you wish you could be. I raced through this book and wished for more. The characters are so human - the best, the worst, and all in between. The evocation of place is brilliant. A Scottish version of McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. With every book by this author I learn new vocabulary and I'm introduced to and/or reminded of authors (Ian Rankin), poets (McDiarmid, Auden, etc.) artists (Peploe, Vettriano, etc.), politicians and current events. I highly recommend it to those who appreciate development of character and place and a hearty laugh, more than heavy action.
  
  
• Slight Serial Passes the Time
  By A1RAUVCWYHTQI4 on 2005-09-13
  Back in the Victorian era, serial fiction was a hugely popular means of getting people to buy newspapers and other periodicals. It makes a certain amount of sense that in today's hypercompetitive media environment someone would resurrect the notion -- especially when there's a brand name author willing to try it. That's what Edinburgh's daily The Scotsman did when they asked the hugely popular Smith to try and write in serial form. Inspired by Armistad Maupin's Tales From the City, he created a band of intersecting characters who get into situations of varying comedic and dramatic import over 110 daily installments.
  
  The central character is Pat, a 20-year-old on her second gap year off college (we are told the first one went awry, and tantalizing hints are dropped, such as "she should have realized the man with the eye patch was not whom he seemed", but the exact nature of her misfortune is never revealed). We meet her as she rents a spare room in a flat at 44 Scotland Street run by a narcissistic 20something rugby-playing real estate appraiser named Bruce. Across the hall is a middle aged wise mother figure named Domenica, and downstairs is the Pollock family. They include the memorable 5-year-old Bertie who speaks Italian to hilarious effect and is being groomed as a child prodigy by his overbearing, insufferable mother Irene (who is far too keen on psychoanalysis) and his ineffectual father. Outside the building, but very much a part of the story are a crew of secondary characters. There is Matthew, an art gallery owner who knows nothing about art and thus hires Pat as his assistant. There is Bruce's boss, Todd, and his society dame wife and misanthropic daughter. There is Bertie's brisk teacher and the droll psychoanalyst brought in when Bertie starts rebelling against his mother's molding. There's the slightly strange woman who runs the cafe near the art gallery, a rookie policeman, bon vivant artist and wit Angus Lordie, and a unnecessary cameo by real-life crime writer Ian Rankin.
  
  The story takes little diversions into the lives of most of these people, offering little character sketches and portraits of daily life. However, the focus is generally on Pat, who has very minor romantic issues to resolve, and also thinks the gallery happens to have a valuable unknown work by the 18th-century painter Samuel Peploe on its wall. There's a bit of P.G. Wodehouse style comedy of errors as the painting goes missing, needs retrieving, and then has its secret ultimately revealed. It's all very light stuff, perfect for small daily doses in the newspaper on the way to work, but perhaps too insubstantial for sitting down and reading straight through. Every reader will have their own favorite character that they'll want more of (for me it's Angus Lordie), and the lack of resolution of some of the plotlines is a little jarring at the end. (Although perhaps these will be addressed in future installments, which have since been collected in a new book: Espresso Tales). Edinburgh natives will doubtless get small frissons as they recognize particular locales, but the book could just have easily been set in any major city in the Western world. Not bad stuff, but not great either, decent for passing time.
  
  
• Delightfully funny.
  By ATBJCQCV2CLQ8 on 2005-09-25
  Alexander McCall Smith has a wonderful way of adding small details to add dimension to his characters, a delightful collection of personalities, warm and wonderful. From giggles to plain out loud laughs!
  
  
• One of the funniest books I have ever read
  By A710KHGMD172D on 2005-12-05
  Anyone who does not like this book does not appreciate British or Scottish humor. I am sure that much of it may have passed me by because I am not familiar with some of the stores and places mentioned. On the other hand, this in no way hampered my fascination with it. The laughs keep coming, much from very subtle and entertaining facets of character. The character sketches here rival those of Charles Dickens - and it was written to be serialized in a newspaper, too. It is difficult to understand that this book has not been recognized as the classic it is: too funny for words (and yet that is all that it is.)
  
  
• Young urbanites
  By A34UTL4AVX80MK on 2005-12-29
  The book is a serialized novel a la TALES OF THE CITY. The book was written while it was being published. Necessarily it has a rambling form.
  
  The ingenue character, Pat, is on her second gap year. She seeks to rent a place. Bruce Anderson functions there as a sort of manager. He is a surveyor. Pat is going to work in a gallery. Her father is a doctor. Domenica Mcdonald lives in the opposite flat. She is an anthropologist who publishes in obscure journals. She has lived in India.
  
  The gallery is not Pat's first job. Pat's employer's name is Matthew. He has not been in the gallery business long. Matthew spends time at Big Lou's, a coffee bar. He believes that he has discovered it. Big Lou is a woman. She worked at a nursing home in Aberdeen and received a bequest from one of the patients.
  
  In her building Pat hears someone playing 'As Time Goes By' on the tenor sax. It turns out the musician is a five year old boy, Bertie. It seems that Bertie no longer wants to study Italian, he is suspended from his nursery school, and he wants to go to a school where uniforms are worn and rugby is played. In the last piece featuring him he makes a friend his own age.
  
  The main action concerns a painting in Matthew's gallery. Pat puts it in an alcove near the ironing board in her building for safe-keeping and Bruce mistakenly takes it, thinking it had been abandoned, to use as a prize at a Conservative Association Ball. Fortunately Pat and Matthew are able to retrieve the painting which receives a designation of being the work of a different artist. The upshot is that with the new attribution it turns out to be quite valuable.
  
  This is the longest book of Alexander McCall Smith I have read, and in many respects the best.
  
  
• The essence of Alexander McCall Smith
  By A19XCL2UA657B8 on 2006-08-17
  This is the 7th or 8th of Smiths wonderful story books I have read. What I enjoyed about 44 Scotland Street, as always, was the richness of character, the foibles, fears and strengths of these multiple and varying people who you feel you know on first aquaintance. The psychiatrist and overbearing mother take therapy to a whole new and perverse level! The narcissistic adonis, the bewildered young lady on a gap, the indecissive gallery manager are just a few of the treats in store. The ending of the book does not tie everything together in a neat package but you have enough at this point to do your own closure on the main actors of the book. A fun read.
  
  
• Quaint and Entertaining
  By AO7QJA26EMLWB on 2006-09-21
  This collection of shorts narrating the lives of the inhabitants of 44 Scotland Street - a Edinburgh neighborhood, full of quirky characters, both lovable and unlovable - is quaint and entertaining, striking a cord of truth in the mind and heart, like many of Smith's stories. A great addition to those previously delighted with Smith - for new readers I recommend The No. #1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
  
  
• Witty
  By A3TO3UVC53P8Q2 on 2006-11-13
  Alexander McCall Smith's latest series introduces us to characters ranging from the egocentric Bruce whose full time job consists of taking baths and admiring his looks in the mirror to Irene, the neurotic mother who has encouraged her young son, Bertie, to learn Italian and the Saxaphone despite his protests and then there is Pat, the attractive college student on her 2nd Gap Year who recognizes the good in people despite falling in love with Bruce, albeit temporarily. While I enjoyed all of the story lines and characters, I found the relationship with Pat and Domenica, her elderly neighbor, most interesting given that many young people dismiss the elderly as being boring and unworthy of their time which is so often not the case, as Pat recognized.
  
  Like other reviewers, the only potential downside to this book was the references to Scottish politics and customs that I couldn't relate to not having lived there... at the same time however, that is what makes it interesting because it opened my eyes up to another world which is the whole point of books in my opinion.
  
  
  
• Droll stroll in Edinburgh
  By A2X29H96X7C3XJ on 2006-12-30
  This is an enjoyable read that sets the reader up very nicely for a sequel. Mccall Smith is almost totally focused on character development--and good characters they are, too. Readers who need a strong baselline plot will be less intrigued with this book, but the author's easy writing style has something for everyone. By the end of the novel, I found myself interested in seeing the city of Edinburgh which serves as a major "character" here. Good read.
  
  
• hilarious
  By AZ5LAC2LKKOKH on 2007-05-21
  This book is absolutely hilarious. The characters, while apparently quintessentially Scottish, are easily relatable to anyone of any nationality in that you sit there and think, "I know someone exactly like that!" You do not have to be from Edinburgh to find this book laugh-out-loud funny. True, there is not much of a resolution at the end, but this book is one of the few instances where the writing is the point, not the plot (which is enjoyable on its own anyway). I can't wait to read the sequel.
  
  
• 21st Century Dickens in Edinburgh
  By A1K1JW1C5CUSUZ on 2005-07-12
  Alexander McCall Smith has helped recreate the daily serialized newspaper-published novel with 44 Scotland Street. In 110 tasty snippets, he introduces vast numbers of memorable characters, expands the action, provides 109 cliff hangers and deliciously complicates the plot. With a spare style and a twinkle in his eye, the author gives us plenty to chuckle about in unveiling the pretensions of the self-congratulatory urbanized upper crust.
  
  Pat is taking a second year off from her college studies. The first year off didn't work quite as she had hoped. Pat is delighted to find a flat she can share with the handsome, if self-absorbed, Bruce, and two perpetually missing flat mates. She quickly finds a job working in an art gallery where the owner, Chris, knows even less about what he's doing than she does. On the same floor in her building is a delightful older woman, Domenica, who knows where all the bodies are buried. Through the walls, Pat can hear little Bertie practicing his saxophone for his mother, Irene . . . who's obsessed with having her son become a civilized genius. Bertie has other ideas.
  
  The cast of characters is soon off on a mad-cap scramble through life whose continuing plot thread is a painting that just might be valuable . . . if only someone can figure out who painted it . . . and where it is. Along the way, lust rears its powerful chemistry and Pat learns to tell the good guys from the bad.
  
  The story reminded me very much of the best of Maeve Binchy's novels about modern Dublin. 44 Scotland Street has the advantage over Ms. Binchy because Alexander McCall Smith is able to deftly develop his story so rapidly with sure visual pictures while bringing out the humor . . . rather than the painful melodrama . . . in everyday living.
  
  I found myself roaring with laughter throughout the book. There's lots of use of psychiatry to develop the humor. I thought that the scenes with Irene and Bertie's analyst were irresitible! I didn't know that you could have so much fun while sober in Scotland.
  
  
• a delight in every way
  By A2Q6LINABTFM92 on 2005-08-03
  My spouse and I listened to this during a 2000 mile road trip this past week and it was indeed delightful. Beautifully read [this was the UK version, I don't know if it was re-recorded for the US market] with expert characterization and inflection, we started to refer to the protagonists--especially 5 year old Bertie--as if they were real companions. We found that the serial nature of the original book had produced a steady flow of small cliffhangers that kept us hooked across 5 CDS. Beware--you will read reviews that state 'nothing happens' in this story. While no-one dies and the terrorists have yet to strike at Edinburgh, nothing could be further from the truth. Of course, if you want shoot-em-up action and underwear flying in all directions, then read [or listen to] some lowest-common-denominator dreck like Dan Brown. But if you have the patience, imagination and brain power to listen, enjoy and savor the nuances, then this is for you!
  
  
• Multitasking takes it Toll
  By AW426E341QPUD on 2005-10-18
  Alexander McCall Smith is a polymath - a professor, lecturer and novelist, he has many balls in the air at any given time. His background in ethics, medicine and world-wide travel give him a wealth of experience to draw upon, and he has a way with words. What he clearly lacks is time.
  44 Scotland Street is an entertaining series on the varied occupants of a large old house. McCall Smith took on the daunting task of doing a series of very short stories for serialisation, with the challenge of both brevity and keeping interest (much like Scheherezade in the 1000 and 1 Arabian Nights) You can not fault his characters, or the interesting twists and turns the plot takes with them. What you can fault is the sudden end that is slapped on to the book, with either the overworked author or the disinterested editor to blame. While the threads involving the young girl, the painting and the narcissist are somewhat closed (what about the second painting she buys in the charity shop?!) the very engaging plots involving the young prodigy and his over-bearing mother and the mysterious meeting in the New Hall are patently ignored, left glaringly open, and not even in a teasing way to encourage us to buy a sequel.
  McCall Smith needs to do one job and do it thoroughly - the Von Igelfeld Triology being a shining example of a satisfying and complete work, rather than something slapped together to appease his sales-hungry publisher. I'm half-inclined to contact Amnesty International to protest the cruel overworking of an aged author.
  
  
• 44 Scotland Street
  By A2F36FBQYUGJJ8 on 2005-12-19
  I have been listening to this book on Books-On-Tape, after loving
  other Alexander McCall books in this format. I love this book.
  It reminds me of reading Jane Austen, in that it is a morality play
  about people's characters. Like Austen, McCall-Smith
  draws some of the protagonists as caricatures based on
  their failings of character or their absurdity. But also like
  Austen, some of the protagonists are drawn with deep love and respect,
  even though they may have character flaws. The whole plot really
  centers around the character assets and flaws of one main protagonist,
  a young, rather lost woman in modern-day Edinburgh. What a great
  commentary on the foibles of modern-day Scottish society ! But get it
  in book form rather than on tape, so you can savor it better.
  
  

• Espresso Tales
• Love Over Scotland (44 Scotland Street)
• The Right Attitude to Rain (An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery)
• The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)
• The Careful Use of Compliments (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries)